MĂNŪMISSĬO was the form by which slaves were released from slavery.
There were three modes by which this was effected, namely, Vindicta,
Census, and Testamentum. Of these the manumissio by vindicta
is probably the oldest, and perhaps was once the only mode of
manumission. It is mentioned by Livy as in use at an early period;
and, indeed, he states that some persons refer the origin of the
vindicta to the event which he relates, and derive its name from
Vindicius; the latter part, at least, of the supposition is of
no value. The ceremony of the manumissio by the vindicta was as
follows:--The master brought his slave before the magistratus, and
stated the grounds (_causa_) of the intended manumission. The lictor
of the magistratus laid a rod (_festuca_) on the head of the slave,
accompanied with certain formal words, in which he declared that he
was a freeman ex jure quiritium, that is, _vindicavit in libertatem_.
The master in the meantime held the slave, and after he had
pronounced the words _hunc hominem liberum volo_, he turned him round
and let him go (_emisit e manu_), whence the general name of the
act of manumission. The word vindicta itself, which is properly the
res _vindicata_, is used for festuca by Horace. In the case of the
census the slave was registered by the censors as a citizen with his
master’s consent. The third mode of manumission was, when a master
gave liberty to a slave by his will (_testamentum_). The act of
manumission established the relation of patronus and libertus between
the manumissor and the manumitted. When manumitted by a citizen, the
libertus took the praenomen and the gentile name of the manumissor,
and became in a sense a member of the gens of his patron. To these
two names he added some other name as a cognomen, either some name by
which he was previously known, or some name assumed on the occasion:
thus we find the names M. Tullius Tiro, P. Terentius Afer, and other
like names. The relation between a patronus and libertus is stated
under PATRONUS. Before the year B.C. 311, the libertini had not the
suffragium, but in that year the censor Appius Claudius gave the
libertini a place in the tribes, and from this time the libertini
had the suffragium after they were duly admitted on the censors’
roll. In the year B.C. 304, they were placed in the tribus urbanae,
and not allowed to perform military service. In the censorship of
Tiberius Gracchus, B.C. 169, they were placed in one of the tribus
urbanae, determined by lot. Subsequently, by a law of Aemilius
Scaurus, about B.C. 116, they were restored to the four city tribes,
and this remained their condition to the end of the republic, though
various attempts were made to give them a better suffrage. A tax was
levied on manumission by a lex Manlia, B.C. 357: it consisted of the
twentieth part of the value of the slave, hence called _Vicesima_.